Can He Still Ghost Ride?

Posted by: Tony on Saturday, June 28th, 2008

License

In the grand tradition of smooth public relations, Marshawn Lynch’s vehicular saga concludes on a Friday afternoon. Marshawn has issued a public statement, pleaded guilty to “failing to use due care towards a pedestrian,” and received a whopping $150 fine. The only punishment of any consequence is that Marshawn has to surrender his brand new New York drivers license (NY has nothing on the Cali licenses, I can attest) for an indefinite period of time (perhaps until the Bills make the playoffs).

We’ll have to wait and see how this will affect any potential lawsuits by the victim. While Marshawn has admitted to the traffic infraction, his statement denies that he had any reason to believe he’d been involved in an accident or knew he’d hit anyone. And so far, neither the D.A. nor the victim have surfaced any evidence to the contrary. Between that and the ambiguous nature of the victim’s alleged injuries, I’d guess we can expect this to settle pretty quickly, albeit for significantly more than $150.

As a final comment on all this, I’d like to respond to the statements of a lot of sports commentators who have harshly criticized Money for not speaking publicly on this matter until today. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why silence was the best policy. People tend to forget that once a defendant speaks publically on a matter, the statements can’t be taken back. If Marshawn had waived his constitutionally-protected right to remain silent and said something to the media that ended up not jibbing with the evidence, this could have blown up in a serious investigation. As it is, Marshawn held his tongue and can now pay his fine and go. I understand why the media hates when people don’t talk to the media. But in this case, there was nothing to gain by speaking publicly, and I applaud Marshawn for doing the smart thing.



Topics: Alumni, Analysis, Blogs, Buffalo Bills, NFL, Players

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